


Set Me On Fire

by arcticchare



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Dead TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Ghost TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Implied/Referenced Suicide, some people headcanon that ghostinnit comes back sad, what if he came back and only remembered his angry memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28058877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcticchare/pseuds/arcticchare
Summary: Tommy takes a plunge into lava, and the fire consumes his last life, along with most of his memories.When he awakens, the fire is all that he remembers.-Tommy returns as a ghost, with retribution being the only thing on his mind.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, for one para
Comments: 7
Kudos: 559





	Set Me On Fire

**Author's Note:**

> tuned out of Tommy's streams after the first few because I can't handle the emotional manipulation, RP or otherwise, so not canon-compliant with the later streams.  
> Here's some angry GhostInnit. Inspired by [Stronger - The Score].
> 
> [de-anon-ed; 7th Jan]

Flashes are all that remain of Tommy’s life. Little pieces of memory, fragmented and shattered and warped until the original context is almost impossible to see, because Tommy came back  _ wrong _ .

He rises from the bubbling, warm expanse and all he can remember are fleeting images and the hot, coiling anger deep within him that threatens to overcome and consume him. He is TommyInnit, that he knows, and he is furious.

Scrabbling for scraps that will tell him who he is, Tommy searches through his sparse mindscape in the hopes of recollection. He finds war, betrayal and deep-seating anger accompanied by an underlying sorrow, but that is overshadowed by the rage that comes with each new memory that he recalls.

The war against Dream, the pet wars against Sapnap, the betrayals of Eret and Fundy and Wilbur and  _ Tubbo _ …

Tommy doesn’t remember much of any of them but Dream and Wilbur, but he knows that the last betrayal hurt the most - when he attempts to recall more of Tubbo all he feels is a sharp, piercing pain that makes him shudder and pause - and so Tubbo must be someone that he should avoid, no matter how wrathful he may feel.

He has emerged into the nether area, and a swirling purple portal beckons to him, invitingly. Looking at it causes a memory to flash through his mind, briefly, of bitter resentment and poorly-hidden dejection directed poorly at Dream, most developing quickly into self-hatred. (He forgets that last emotion as soon as it surfaces.)

Moving through the portal rewards him with a magnificent view of a tree decorated elaborately with bright baubles and lovely lights placed at random among its boughs, creating a truly beautiful sight. Floating lanterns blend in with the glowing stars high above, being far too high up to be seen clearly by the naked eye.

Tommy snorts derisively. Whoever had set those up had clearly not been thinking straight. He tears his gaze away from the eye-catching attractions and reminds himself of his mission; he cannot afford to become distracted.

Every time he has attempted this, he has failed. Even with how little he can recall, he knows that Dream is one obstacle which he will always struggle to overcome.

This time will be different. He doesn’t know why, but something unknown is fuelling him on - and really, who is he to question it?

What he can remember - Dream stealing his discs, Dream attacking him, Dream defeating him in a bow duel, Dream siding with Wilbur… Dream exiling him - tells him that the self-proclaimed god of the server deserves everything that he will get.

(His tunnel-vision means that he misses a blonde boy stopping in his tracks when Tommy become corporeal for a minute, floating across the wooden platforms of the city. It means that he doesn’t see the way the boy flinches when he glimpses the eerie orange glow surrounding the ghost of his dead once-friend, and the way that his hesitation costs him when Tommy vanishes again.)

He finds Dream within a house of crafting benches, alone. The wind caresses the leaves of the trees nearby and skims across the surface of the water, a stark contrast to the flames fueling him, consuming him. His lips curl, baring his teeth in a wild grin as he advances.

There are no footsteps to warn Dream. Nothing to tell him that he is not alone in the room, before the swish of a ghostly diamond sword triggers reflexes honed by years of practice, and Dream ducks, narrowly avoiding a swing that would have decapitated him otherwise.

“Bet you didn’t think I’d come back here, bitch.”

Tommy’s crazed laughter echoes around the large, empty room.

Dream’s eyes widen behind his mask even as he detaches his netherite axe from his belt, bringing it into a ready position in a single fluid movement. The other disregards this, striking once again without any strategy or tactics, his only driving force being the magma bubbling beneath the surface of his skin, demanding retribution at any cost.

It’s blind destruction, blind rage that had consumed Tommy the moment that the lava had consumed his physical form. Tommy’s ghost was born in fire, and will exist in fire, perpetually burning with an insatiable fury unable to be extinguished. 

Dream visibly blanches; the young ghost is clearly unhinged. It puts him on guard immediately, and he calls out a warning.

“Tommy, I  _ warned  _ you to not come back to L’Manberg.”

The recipient chuckles darkly, unheeding of the warning. Something is wrong. It is then that Dream’s mind comprehends the desaturation of Tommy’s visage, of his intact clothing, and his face, hidden behind a white mask, pales to match it.

“-Tommy?”

There is no reply, only another swing of the translucent sword, this time towards his torso. Dream neatly dodges it and thrusts his axe forward without hesitation. Whatever this spirit is, it’s not Tommy, isn’t the boy he befriended and went to war with and exiled- A flash of regret wells up within him before he pushes it down.

The thrust passes through the spirit’s chest, and the unexpected momentum from his attack pulls Dream partially  _ through _ Tommy’s body. Shock permeates his thoughts, which swirl with ‘how’ and ‘why’, but the thought that comes to the forefront of his mind is that he can’t fight this version of Tommy.

Dream might be one of the best fighters on the server, having the battlefield engrained in his history, but he knows instantly that despite the oceans between his skill level and that of this ghost’s, he cannot fight a being that can become incorporeal at will. Especially if, like Wilbur, Tommy can become invisible as well.

He feels a seeping dread start to make itself known, a chill down his spine that has nothing to do with the gentle breeze dancing through the room. There’s nothing that he can do against this spectre, the shattered remnants of a young boy who he spent hours breaking down.

There’s nothing that he can do to defend himself from this poltergeist that burns brightly with violently flickering flames of destruction and who has magma running through his veins, promising retribution for his own untimely end.

So he  _ runs _ .

**Author's Note:**

> tried out a different writing style.
> 
> Extra: Tommy loses the ability to hold/use weapons in a week, and Dream breathes a sigh of relief. There’s just one catch; Tommy doesn’t leave L’Manberg. They’re stuck with a volatile poltergeist who has no memories of them at best, and memories of hating them at worst. He’s so different to Wilbur that they don’t know how to handle him.
> 
> And Tubbo? Tommy’s never been truly angry at Tubbo, so Tubbo is a blank slate. And Tubbo can’t even try to make up to him for exiling him, because Tommy is suspended in that constant state of fury and hatred towards everyone, even if he doesn’t remember him. Any attempts to reconnect end in failure.


End file.
